National Academic Depository Holds Awareness Programme

Students can now directly access their Degrees & Mark Sheets

The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and University Grants Commission (UGC) has set up a National Academic Depository (NAD) which facilitates academic institutions to digitally secure and quickly upload student’s academic awards on the authorized Depository portal which is then transferred into the digital locker assigned to a student upon registration with NAD and accessible by him 24x7 using his UID Aadhaar number or a NAD ID. The student can also print his academic awards or authorize any employer/verification agency to verify his certificates. In future this would eliminate the need for a student to carry his certificates on person and by chance misplace them or or the need to submit attested photocopies of his/her certificates for verification as all awards would be available on-line. 

To create awareness about NAD and Digital Academic Certificates, UGC conducted a workshop for all Central, State, Private, Deemed Universities and standalone academic institutions located in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Rajasthan on 23 Jun 2017 which was attended by Wg Cdr Manohar Vasudev (Retd), Controller of Examinations, The NorthCap University, Gurugram. The meeting was chaired by Dr Nisar Ahmed Mir, Joint Secretary, UGC. Universities were advised to enter into a Service Level Agreement with one of the two approved Mumbai based Depository Companies viz. NSDL or CSDL and upload student’s Academic Awards from academic session 2017-2018. The Depository Company representatives also dwelt on the process of uploading Academic Awards and the responsibility matrix between the institution and the Depository Company. MHRD has directed that the services of the Depository Company would be free of cost up to 30 Sep 2019 for academic institutions and up to the age of 27 for students. The workshop ended with an interactive session and the initiative was lauded by all.

Trek to Barot Valley - Himachal Beautiful Valley

The club ‘Trekkers of NCU’ organized a trekking expedition at 7700 feet (2300 Metres) inside the magical valley of Barot, on the outskirts of Nargu Wildlife Sanctuary, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. The Barot valley is located at the foot hills of Dhauladhar, a hidden paradise referred to as ‘Chotha Bhangal’ with the gushing Uhl river flowing down from the Thamsar Glacier, which forms a gateway to the legendary ‘Bara Bhangal’.

A team of 14 enthusiastic students, alumni and faculty were part of this trek from 25-28 May 2017. The team saw the reservoir at the Joginder Nagar Hydel Power Project with water rushing down nearly a thousand metres through penstock pipes to the Uhl river. They interacted with the villagers and saw their terrace farms with organic vegetables, fruits, pulses and saw them weaving woollen clothes like shawls and local pattu’s, as a housecraft. 

The trek started from the base camp at Barot to Rajgundha (15-18 km). At the height of 3700 metres the team enjoyed the mesmerizing view of the Himalayan range, Bir-Billing - with para-gliders sailing down from Billing to Bir, Kangra and Barot Valley. The trip was full of excitement and adventure. The trip was coordinated by Ms Jyotsna Singh, Dept of CSE&IT.

NCU celebrates World Environment Day

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) organized the World Environment day on 5 June 2017 with full enthusiasm and vigour. On this auspicious occasion a pledge was taken by the faculty and staff of the University to reduce, reuse, recycle waste, protect all life forms and conserve the environment. 

To celebrate the occasion a poster making competition was organized in which the faculty from the CEE and the Centre for Languages Learning (CLL) participated and came up with innovative ideas. The event was judged by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Brig SK Sharma (Retd) and the Best Poster Award was won by the CLL Team.

The session also included the screening of a short film on the environment which highlighted our role in its protection, as engineers.

My Pledge & Promise for the Environment

I will do my part to protect the Earth
I will take care of and clean up the environment I will be kind to and
respect all life forms 

I will never litter 

I will always recycle 

I will reduce the waste I create 

I will reuse what I can I will conserve energy & water

I will encourage others to conserve our natural resources 

By doing this I will be “Making a Visible Difference” in my
community and the world

Delta Cup China – The Journey So Far

The NorthCap University (NCU) collaborated with Delta Electronics Pvt Ltd in January 2017 under the leadership of Director, School of Engineering &Technology, Prof. Ravindra Ojha. This industrial integration with the world’s leading producer of power supplies has provided us three students of NCU: Vibhor Mittal (ECE), Tanyam Popli (ME) and Shivam Notiyal (ME) for creating a Smart Machine model on ‘Self-Check-Out System in Retail’. Our project has been selected through a national level competition to represent India at the ‘Delta Cup Contest’ at South Asia Level to be held at Beijing, China from 24-26 July 2017.

Our journey for the Delta Cup started with a talk on the Delta Cup 2017 by Prof Ravindra Ojha and Mr Vimal Pandey, Delta Electronics India Pvt Ltd to BTech 3rd Year, ME and ECE students at NCU in November 2016. This was followed by an interview at the university level to select 15 Students, nine from ECE and six from ME. We were lucky enough to be selected in this interview. We, along with students of five other universities from North India were given a technical training by industry experts on PLCs, HMIs, Drives, Robotics etc for five days. This included an industrial visit to Delta Electronics India, Gurugram on the last day. It was a great exposure for each one of us. Thereafter we were asked to form teams of three members and an innovative project proposal was to be submitted to Delta.

Students at work for the Delta Cup finals at Beijing, China

We, Tanyam Popli, Vibhor Mittal and Shivam Nautiyal formed a team and decided to work on a proposal to automate checkout system in retail. Being roommates was a big advantage for us. Keeping in mind the rules and requirements of the competition we submitted a project proposal titled ‘Self-Check-out System in Retail’ that satisfied all the competition criteria and duly approved by Dr Shiv Manjaree Gopaliya, Dept of Mechanical Engineering and Ms Charu Rana, Dept of EECE at the University level. Out of the five project proposals submitted from NCU our team idea was selected by Delta Electronics India. A total of 17 ideas out of 52 were selected Pan India. The proposal was redrafted as per the format provided to us. The second round of selection involved an online technical test. The evaluation was based upon the team’s performance in the online test and their innovative idea in the project proposal. After a long wait, finally, a proud moment for all of us, the team and the University, arrived in the form of the selection of our project for ‘Delta Cup 2017’. Only three teams have been selected to represent India during ‘Delta Cup 2017’ to be held in China from 24 to 28 July 2017.

With this great news, we also had the major challenge of giving shape to our ideas. We are thankful to Prof. Ojha who with his vast industrial experience helped us bridge the gap between reality and the feasibility of our project. Our next step was to fabricate the demo kit for our project which comprises of development of both hardware and software. In the development, maintenance and integration of Android app (offline mode), our sincere thanks are due to Ms Richa Chhabra and our friends Sachin Verma, Palash Sharma and Nivitt Malik, Dept of CSE. They offered us immense help in the realization of our project. PLC programming and other interfacing of Delta products was our major concern as serial communication with Delta PLC through Java had never been done before! Overcoming this concern boosted our confidence to move forward with the hardware part.

Next, we set up the frame of the machine in mild steel and developed the conveyor. In order to make the conveyor light, compact and sturdy we designed the conveyor rollers in nylon with a 2 mm seamless conveyor belt. Initially we thought electromechanical system got converted into the electromechanical design with a pneumatic system. The sealing mechanism consisted of a fixed heating system and a moving plunger to seal the bag. We made the heating system by customizing a normal 12" plastic bag sealer, and the plunger mounted on a pneumatic cylinder with guide rails for support. Once the sealing system was successfully tested, we designed a custom solution for easy application and retrieval of bag. The boom barrier at the end of the entire system has been mounted on a pneumatic rotary cylinder.

Presently, the final challenge which remains before us is designing of a weighing system on which we are working tirelessly. The journey so far has been exciting learning experience and we look forward to bringing laurels to our University in the final presentation of the Delta Cup Contest in China.

Make in India - a Boon for Indian Education System

The ‘Make in India’ initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that is aimed at transforming India into a manufacturing hub can prove to be relevant in the education sector too.  India is a huge reservoir of talent with the demographic dividend in its favour and have the highest number of scientists, doctors, engineers, businessmen and opportunities in the young age profile.

China and India as two powerful emerging economies are strengthening their business and trade ties for mutual benefit. Both countries hold ample opportunities that can be exploited in the best possible manner through ‘closer developmental partnership’. ‘Make in India’ is acting as an excellent facilitator in inviting potential partners and investors around the world. It has significantly attracted China, having vast foreign exchange reserves waiting to be deployed overseas to invest in India where the cost of capital is still relatively high.  

                                          

Economic development and enhancing human capabilities through higher education and skill development go hand in hand. In May 2016, Hon’ble President Shri Pranab Mukherjee witnessed the signing of MoUs between ten universities of India and China to create a “collaborative platform for academic cooperation in the areas of research and education, joint seminars and exchange of faculty and students”. The collaborative research projects with Chinese institutions could lead to better academic synergy apart from understanding of issues of mutual interest. The MoUs aim to bridge regional educational disparity in both countries and fill the knowledge gap.

Under the ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative, Chinese institutions are increasingly encouraged to go abroad in search of new investments and new opportunities. The recent London Times Higher Education Supplement ranking of the world's top 200 universities included three in China and one in India (an Indian Institute of Technology at number four, the specific campus was not specified).  Joshua Mok Ka-Ho, vice-president and Chair professor of comparative policy at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University says, “As a developmental state with a strong political will to do well globally, the Chinese regime will try every means to position the country and steer the resources from the whole nation to make sure some of their selected universities become globally leading”. China is building some research-based universities that are able to compete with the world's best institutions.

In his first class on 5 Nov 2014, after taking over as Honorary Professor at Peking University, former President Late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam called for Sino-Indian joint space collaboration and interface between universities of the two countries on development themes. “I believe that the very act of universities of the world working together will be a major factor in better understanding of the different cultures and contribute significantly to the peace and prosperity of the world”, Dr Kalam said.

Many Chinese universities and industries have shown keen interest in the Prime Minister’s call, and have collaborated with Indian universities in recent times. We can name a few like, The Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar; MDI, Gurugram, The NorthCap University, Gurugram; Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore; Nalanda University Bihar and others. Such Indo-Chinese collaborations can bring revolutionary changes in the education system of both India and China. It can potentially eliminate the existing flaws of the Indian education system along with strengthening the education as well as economy of the country.

What benefits will the students get?

Knowledge exchange and technology transfer 

Both the countries are developing rapidly where technology transfer and knowledge sharing can act as a catalyst for development. The common goals can be achieved through co joint efforts. When two universities collaborate, it results in abundant knowledge sharing not only at the student level but the faculty too undergo new experiences. It assists in opting for the best academic practices and standards.

Excellent exposure via student exchange programmes 

 ‘Make in India’ in the education sector has called upon many Chinese universities that are offering student exchange programmes. It offers an extensive platform to students in terms of fostering greater intellectual and cultural exchanges that lead to better understanding between the two countries. This enhances the overall learning experience of the student that further adds to the overall grooming of the student.

 

Better scholarship opportunities for Indian students  

Collaborating with Chinese universities can further widen the scope of scholarships for Indian students making the migration smoother. The swift migration will not only open the door of employment opportunities for individuals but enhances the adaptability.

Increased employability through multidisciplinary skills  

The collaborations of Chinese industries with Indian universities will not only lead to knowledge sharing but also in imparting vocational skills which will definitely increase the employability of students. Industry academia collaboration will also provide access to industry environments for applied and problem based research activities. The industry will provide education, relevant skill training and certification and assessment support to the university. Indian students equipped with Chinese manufacturing skills will tend to be absorbed quickly by the Indian industry. 

Flexibility in courses and jobs 

Our education system is known to be rigid, generally following the conventional theoretical approach to learning. Collaborative programmes will encourage the Indian universities to adopt a more practical approach having flexibility in courses to meet the changing needs of the students. Generally students now-a-days prefer to work while getting their education for simultaneous industrial exposure.

To Sum up

India’s export earnings presently depend on a few sectors, like information technology, pharmaceuticals and specialized auto parts, but to match China in its range of manufacturing capacity and tech capabilities the youth capital has to be well educated, tech-savvy, possessing expertise in vocational and industry/business relevant skills. If India and China set aside their differences and cooperate and collaborate in the field of higher education, limited resources will turn into vast resources that will bring peace and prosperity to the region. Policy framework and modalities should be specifically worked out to leverage full benefit of collaborations as issues regarding regulations remain key challenges.

Ms Rekha Mathur 

Educationist

The NorthCap University

Gurugram